Jan Alen

Jan Alen (1582-) was a Dutch pirate and privateer during the Dutch Revolt. Through his plundering of Spanish, English, and French shipping and settlements in the Caribbean, he reached the rank of Admiral in the Dutch Navy.

Biography
Jan Alen was born in Rotterdam, United Provinces in 1582, and he originally belonged to a middle-class family. However, he decided to seek his fortune at sea in 1599, joining the Dutch Navy and sailing to the Caribbean. After the captain's abuses became too much for the crew, Alen and 20 crew members took part in a mutiny and took over the Dutch fluyt, Revenge. Alen was named the ship's captain, and he then sailed into Sint Maarten and received letters of marque from Governor Hendrik-Jan Metz, who encouraged him to attack French and Spanish ships as part of the Protestant-Catholic war during the Dutch Revolt. Alen recruited 20 Sint Maartener pirates to join his crew, and he then began a campaign of plundering Spanish Navy vessels leaving San Juan, Puerto Rico. In April 1600, he overstepped his bounds by attacking a Spanish smuggler ship under Sebastian Rejón; the Spanish ship, whose crew vastly outnumbered the pirates, boarded Alen's vessel, killed or captured his entire crew, and forced Alen to surrender. He was imprisoned in San Juan for several months, but he offered a guard a 3,000 reales bribe in exchange for being allowed to escape. He reached his ship, where his few remaining crew members joined him; he then sailed to Nouveau Paris and recruited more crew members. Mayor Bernart Aveline attempted to enlist Alen's aid in escorting him to his new governorship in the Florida Keys, but Alen instead attacked his 20-gun sloop La Sabre Affame and killed the crew before plundering the ship.